Bells of the North Homestead

SoapCalc © Recipe Name:    New      Print Recipe Total oil weight 2 lb Water as percent of oil weight 38.00 % Super Fat/Discount 5 % Lye Concentration 27.285 % Water : Lye Ratio 2.6651:1 Sat : Unsat Ratio 39 : 61 Iodine 56 INS 156 Fragrance Ratio 0.5 Fragrance Weight 1.00 oz Pounds Ounces Grams Water 0.760 12.16 344.73 Lye -  NaOH 0.285 4.56 129.35 Oils 2.000 32.00 907.18 Fragrance 0.063 1.00 28.35 Soap weight before CP cure or HP cook 3.108 49.72 1,409.61 # √ Oil/Fat % Pounds Ounces Grams 1 Avocado Oil 20.00 0.400 6.40 181.44 2 Coconut Oil, 92 deg 35.00 0.700 11.20 317.51 3 Castor Oil 20.00 0.400 6.40 181.44 4 Olive Oil 20.00 0.400 6.40 181.44 5 Avocado butter 5.00 0.100 1.60 45.36 Totals 100.00 2.000 32.00 907.18 Soap Bar Quality Range Your Recipe Hardness 29 - 54 37 Cleansing 12 - 22 23 Conditioning 44 - 69 57 Bubbly 14 - 46 41 Creamy 16 - 48 32 Iodine 41 - 70 56 INS 136 - 165 156 Lauric 17 Myristic 7...

SoapCalc © Recipe Name:    New      Print Recipe Total oil weight 2 lb Water as percent of oil weight 38.00 % Super Fat/Discount 5 % Lye Concentration 27.285 % Water : Lye Ratio 2.6651:1 Sat : Unsat Ratio 39 : 61 Iodine 56 INS 156 Fragrance Ratio 0.5 Fragrance Weight 1.00 oz Pounds Ounces Grams Water 0.760 12.16 344.73 Lye -  NaOH 0.285 4.56 129.35 Oils 2.000 32.00 907.18 Fragrance 0.063 1.00 28.35 Soap weight before CP cure or HP cook 3.108 49.72 1,409.61 # √ Oil/Fat % Pounds Ounces Grams 1 Avocado Oil 20.00 0.400 6.40 181.44 2 Coconut Oil, 92 deg 35.00 0.700 11.20 317.51 3 Castor Oil 20.00 0.400 6.40 181.44 4 Olive Oil 20.00 0.400 6.40 181.44 5 Avocado butter 5.00 0.100 1.60 45.36 Totals 100.00 2.000 32.00 907.18 Soap Bar Quality Range Your Recipe Hardness 29 - 54 37 Cleansing 12 - 22 23 Conditioning 44 - 69 57 Bubbly 14 - 46 41 Creamy 16 - 48 32 Iodine 41 - 70 56 INS 136 - 165 156 Lauric 17 Myristic 7 ...

Six more weeks till Winter. Or so the story goes told by Alaskan Natives and sourdoughs alike.   When the fireweed has bloomed all the way to the top, we have six more weeks till the snow flies.   So far this break up and then into summer, we’ve had some successes….and some failures.    That’s pretty typical though.   The garden is doing well but could be doing better thanks to the late start because of our vacation in the lower 48.   That is a killer here since our growing season is so short.    We got to harvest a large bunch of garlic scapes earlier this week.   Yes indeed, garlic scapes.   SUCCESS! The garlic survived the winter! We’ll have garlic later this summer to harvest.   We’re about 2 days away from harvesting our first zucchini and summer squash of the season.   Our kale and broccoli rabe this year barely sprouted due to the fact that we got a late start on it.   We should have ...

As usual come winter here in North Pole, Alaska we turn inwards and spend time relaxing; learning new skills; reading books; and just as of this past Autumn I started attending college for my certification in Herbal Retail Management with the American College of Healthcare Sciences in Portland, Oregon.  So while we're not working non stop outside, we still stay relatively busy, all within close proximity to the lit wood stove.  Drying our laundry and cooking dinner on the wood stove while keeping us warm As we get closer to what can be considered Break up or what is called Spring in the lower 48, we begin to set up our plans for the next growing season or summer.  For some time now, actually before we started raising meat rabbits we wanted to have laying hens.  To us it just seemed to be the easier option.  Rabbits, in the beginning, actually were not even on our radar!  To us the eggs seemed much more desirable then the meat we would get from t...

Today was rabbit day. 23.5 lbs of rabbit harvested today. We have now moved all the babies that were in the temporary grow outs into the nicer grow outs to give them better accommodations. Our team of three (Edward, Nick and I) did great today! Nick did two of his own, almost completely by himself. It was a bit rocky starting off but before you know it we started picking up speed. And it was honeybee day. 1 gallon, 2 pints of honey harvested. Between the chicken we purchased as a chicken share from a friend, the rabbits, the berries I've picked this summer and all the other miscellaneous frozen bits I have stored away, our freezer is a bit full. Oh and never before have I had such a run on mason jars. Note to self, buy more mason jars. And soon. I still very badly need to make a batch of Apple Walnut bread. The apples that we picked are fermenting in the corner. Hhmm, maybe I should see if Edward wants to make hard cider with them? It's a thought! ...